twenty thirteen spreads across the world we will show you the most spectacular celebrations and look ahead to the potential challenges their faces in the new year . we also look back on a year filled with conflict and cuts protests and rest and hear from our correspondents on how it all could have turned out differently. plus it is a fiscal cliff as a last minute deal seems likely to fend off a new year tax hike in the u.s. with the scene now set for another showdown on capitol hill. and arlen takes over as the head of the european union but it's massive debt leaves it in a position just as the broad calls for strong leadership.

hello good morning and happy new year you are watching live from moscow with me andrey farm. now as the new year continues to roll out across the world let's take a quick look at some of the most spectacular celebrations that have happened so far new zealand was among the first to last year in two thousand and thirteen crowds packed the harbor in oakland to enjoy the display at the city's sky tower while almost two million people turned out at peak a celebration in australia sydney's skyline erupting with the now standard jaw dropping fireworks at midnight from the harbor bridge there midnight later moved on to asia and this is hong kong which really built up the tension with the can down then lit up the sky from both land and sea. europe has also

welcomed in the new year with a major fireworks display at the brandenburg gate in berlin becoming one of the world's largest open air parties and a dazzling display also splash skies above the london eye in the u.k. capital and across the atlantic over a million spectators descended on you try counting time square to celebrate your day with the traditional. while the new year in russia officially kicked off when the clock at sky tower in moscow rang out twelve times the iconic red square was filled with crowds as fireworks lit the skies above the kremlin the russians it's been a year of major political challenges though and the rise of vocal public opinion parties peace lavelle has taken i find to be true russian politics over the years and my colleagues kevin and he said now i asked how he sees things panning at. so

what is the future of russia's political opposition as you see the new compared to two thousand and twelve i would say it's kind of bleak but not hopeless ok we didn't come up with any new ideas new organization new faces in the pussy riot is that we are of the opposition it's pretty dreadful situation for the russian people and political development in general here and there is there was political change in this country and a positive change does make up the opposition as we head into the it's a very interesting question because i have gone to most of the major demonstrations and there were people there of goodwill in my opinion but then there were fascists there ok there were communists there and they were these are people there ok and if you are right to demonstrate i for actually like the idea but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they have no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like but a mere putin which is not a very it's not a political agenda there were a few protests which i was out as well where it did seem like that was the method

if you wanted to gain traction on this opposition movement do you see people coming out and take the train lost a lot of its novelty effect right now ok because political change takes years in years and years that have to be local this is what happens in political changes with countries that were often were tearing at one time it takes a long time to get people involved in the process and that is happening very very strongly there are some people that want to really fast and they don't want to do through elections they want power because they want power because they believe they deserve it and what about the fact that we're not going to see any presidential elections of course that all led up to being elected a third term this protest and now they're kind of down now oh i would say to people i mean if you want to continue to protest in but you know join a political party there are forty four of them now you have a choice ok get involved see one of the things i saw with a lot of the protesters is that they want someone else to do all the hard work ok they want to go out and wave a flag and. so you give out

a slogan you don't want to do the hard nitty gritty work of political change and that's what we need to do i would be looking at the next parliamentary election project will know we certainly will be impure most going to be as you come up as one of the great programs in store will wish you all the very person you cross talk to all about the new year on up to date. well twenty thirteen will be a year of change for iran as the current president sat down with no clear insight later in the program we'll look if the upcoming election will take foreign eyes of iran's nuclear program all the way the last two years seen a fish and death for many in syria and you feel twenty thirty will bring long awaited peace to the war torn states of. america breathes a sigh of relief going into the twenty thirteen as lawmakers in washington strike a deal on the edge of the fiscal cliff the failure would have thing taxes skyrocket for virtually every u.s. worker but it is not all good news the deal is reportedly only temporary setting

the stage for another showdown in a few months talks that some say won't go any smoother. nobody is talking about the true issue to the fact that the country and the western world is bankrupt basically this is a classic case of kicking the can down the road they didn't want to address it before the election so they said we'll extend the debt and we'll just wait till next year and they thought it would go a bit further but the deficit ran up so much faster than anticipated we'll take care of it tomorrow and that's all the politicians in the us are anywhere too they're not proactive they're not problem solvers they don't care about you and all they care about is their own little power and you know let the rest of the world be damned american doesn't understand why his country why the world economy is going down the drain all they know is class warfare which is what the administration wants that the banks are getting rich and they're getting poorer they don't

understand why any of this is happening so for the average american they're going to pay some more taxes but the average americans in fear of losing his job and losing everything that he's worked this whole life for and he doesn't have a clue why well. i gave us his full cost on her financial. the fiscal cliff is just more of fear from politicians trying to distract from the underlying root. that is a bunch of. bankers who are manipulating the system. destroying the economy the first book is just more drama more theater it doesn't really work on the floor in the long run we're going to see more of this going through other things like the mob with bridgeport and their torches coming out for these people they want to just

delay that reckoning for many months now but they regulate it twenty thirty it's. not a squeeze tight and not too happy about it is also celebrating new year we look back on the right is twenty twelve for the union and here what the coming year may have in store for europe. a shortage of olive branches in the heart of the middle east a fresh war leaves palestinians and israelis at each other's throats with the new year bringing little hope of conciliation between its strange neighbors. to america's main political event to begin the presidential election thrilling race with the run is neck and neck all the way to the finish that that's what it looks like with a bomb a snatching victory for mitt romney at the very last moment but their competition overshadowed some third party candidates who were left struggling to get their voices heard. and i reflect on the race to the top. there were cheers

of relief here when he won i would say because the alternative was thought to be so much worse many voted out of fear that romney could win for them he was another george w. bush so whether americans have fallen out of love with obama the two thousand and eight euphoria was gone that's for sure back then there were these crowds you know in the streets all across the country shedding tears of joy so bad in their view where the eight years of bush presidency obama was viewed as the savior and then he went to save the banks save the auto industry something he took a special pride in during the election campaign but across the country millions of people remained out of work and are still out of work so this time president obama ran under the banner it could have been so much worse as you imagine it was not a banner for national euphoria it was more like you have no choice but to choose me kind of better something that shocked me while i was covering the election here it

was it was the second debate between obama and romney i'm sure you remember you remember that as a presidential nominee from the green party jule styne was arrested right outside the venue where the debate was taking place she was protesting for exclusion from the debate and nobody like no news channel q. had mentioned her arrest none and i was switching channels for hours to see if anything was said about that and it was nothing i can imagine what the reaction would be here in the states if a presidential candidate is the other big country was arrested in the media there wouldn't even mention it but apparently it happens in the u.s. no big deal presidential candidates get arrested all the time right well there was some irony in that yes anyway during the election campaign the mainstream media had been focused on nothing else and no one else with these two candidates and we are t.v. as you remember of course saw the in saw an opportunity there to show what others don't and we posted the debate. now there was one thing that shook the badly that

made president obama's put the country's tragedy second amendment under some heavy five the sandy hook primary school shooting that left twenty children and six stuff that saw the president for a ban on some firearms auntie's tom hartman looks at whether the new year might bring some changes in america's weapons policy my guess is what we're going to see is cosmetic change we're going to see probably the or the assault weapons ban come back they'll be a fair number of loopholes in it but you know the u.s. is not going to end up going the way that switzerland or israel have done or many most european countries have done australia when john howard was president one thousand nine hundred eight when there was a mass slaughter and then they said ok that's it we're going to buy back all the guns and it's not going to happen here there's just too much money being made with guns insane supreme court or at least five right wing crazies out of the nine on the supreme court decided that even though the second amendment says in order to maintain a well regulated militia necessary for the for the security of

a free state the right to you know you people have the right to own guns that's half of it the other half of it is that the supreme court also said that corporations interest groups lobbying groups billionaires can throw unlimited amounts of money in politicians. freedom of speech but not of the speaker we report on the world's most wanted whistleblower. what he managed to achieve on the highest arrest and in hiding that is coming up in a few minutes. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then. some other part of

it and realize that everything you. are welcome is a big. news today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. corporations are. cool. again wars uprisings crises and worldwide protests may twenty twelve

a turbulent year with not all that much positive news but what if it had all turned out differently. explores the headlines could have been. twenty twelve was certainly full of disappointing headlines hope fueled by the arab spring turned into the turmoil of the arab autumn the war in syria claimed countless lives and the fiscal crisis all the european union torn apart at its very seams and the problems facing our world today certainly don't offer themselves up to an easy fix what if things had turned out differently what if opportunities were actually seized upon instead of missed well here's our look at the twenty twelve headlines that could have been. diplomacy succeeds in syria ending bloody conflict. instead this was the image of syria the world saw increasingly violent clashes between government forces and the opposition had claimed more than forty thousand lives efforts to negotiate

a diplomatic solution fall flat because divisions ripped apart both the country and the international community hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring states where many have found conditions to be dismal meanwhile syria's war is threatening to spill over its borders as tensions escalate within and in the region. but told me to try and sanction slashed. except. by the us rules to restrict foreign. mideast peace with israel links to stay with palestine. yet this was their reality israel's assault on palestinian militants in gaza israel's anti-missile shield repelled in most attacks on its territory but a strike claimed the lives of more than one hundred sixty palestinians many of them civilians despite harsh condemnation from many in the international community the war and israel's subsequent decision to construct three thousand new settlements

effectively slammed the door shut to any prospect of peace go through people power moment he's. step aside and let democracy. get lost get most notorious kuantan in my prison permanently shot. euro zone cuts the cuts and lifts austerity. but the news of austerity only tightened as deep public sector cuts brought thousands of angry demonstrators to the streets of greece spain italy and portugal. the worst economic crisis of a generation has battered the european union's very foundations exacerbating tensions between member states with some regions now desperately wanting out i grew up in a europe that was divided from east to west. to europe that is divided from old to self never at any point in the history of this union has there been more discord of rank that we covered. corporate cash banned from the campaign coffers as part of

the us political please. know we here for u.k. brits quit european union. we can expound a judean the solyndra point to the un free speech and. instead a song remains a political refugee at ecuador's london embassy where he's been granted asylum he continues to fight extradition to sweden over alleged sex crimes charges that he says are politically motivated and tied to his work in leaking international government secrets. the power of people speaking up and resisting together terrifies corrupt democratic power so much so that ordinary people here in the west and the enemy of governments an enemy to be watched and then to me to be can for all and to be impoverished true democracy is not the white house true democracy is not. true democracy is the resistance of people with the truth

against law is from the right here in london. everyday ordinary people teach us that democracy is free speech and just sent. from heretics to hero american whistleblower bradley manning finally free. droning almost nations agree to end iraq of remote controlled war. egypt's arab spring sees democracy defeat hardline islamist. the reality on the ground was anything but egyptian president mohamed morsi is fouled like power grab unleashed fury and frenzied street battles and a fast track to constitutional overhaul referendum left a bitter opposition eager for change for them two thousand and twelve saw the arab spring transform into an egyptian nightmare had the revolution to get rid of a tyrant to dictators. in order to that we made

elections and the revolution and elections to choose someone to the present us turned out that this guy is also a tyrant in itself and these headlines may have been the stuff of imagination but that's the of twenty thirteen can bring any of them to life. r.t. moscow well despite hopes for a brighter future some experts expressed doubt that in the case of syria any major breakthroughs will allow people that reprieve in twenty thirty. very sad to say to everybody all over the world that the top geopolitical tragedy of two thousand and thirteen is going to be the top geopolitical tragedy of two thousand and eleven the rape of syria the only possibility would be that the opposition. in a syrian way this sides not to listen to the saudis the turks their qataris the americans the brits and the french and they sit down with the assad government and

they will work out a transitional government or at least a transitional period leading to free and fair elections is this going to happen not likely there's been no love lost between palestinians and israelis in the aftermath of yet another war between the two today tel aviv plans new settlements on occupied palestinian land while hamas and fattah vowed to rearm and promise no quarter play in our report and what it bodes for the future. if you look at what's happening on the ground israel continues to announce a settlement construction and the palestinians continue to say that for as long as these announcements continue they will be no resumption of peace talks it wasn't so long ago that the palestinians were boarded upgraded status at the united nations but you cannot detract from the fact that we still have palestinian faction groups hamas and fattah who always seem to be at each other's throats in less than a month the israelis will go to the polls and by all predictions they will reelect

the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for another term of office and it doesn't seem as if he has an olive branch so certainly the prognosis for any kind of peace moves is far back in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine we had a conflict that was twenty two days long by comparison this time around it was eight days four years ago the casualty count was more than a thousand people who were killed most of them palestinians this time around the casualty count was was a lot lower and again four years ago there was a ground offensive this time around there wasn't a ground operation. june twenty third round will be holding a presidential election mahmoud ahmadinejad's won't be running though having served the maximum two terms aside from that there's no certainty as to who will take over at a tense time when iran's nuclear program continues to be a thorn in some western nations sides journalist afshin rattansi who's often shared his thoughts with us doesn't think the new leader will bend to foreign will. i

think whoever we people of iran elects policy foreign policy terms things are going to be much the same terminology of western corporate media on this or a bizarre image of the islamic extremists in all sorts of different morning because the point is iran is there to stay in terms of forging a very different type of developing nation economy because it has all that oil and has all those resources and it's not going to suddenly start changing things the way the i.m.f. or the way washington wants it to be. now in europe people are making their new year wishes and plenty of them have their fingers crossed that things will be a little less tight in twenty thirty investment advisor patrick young says greece still doesn't have a functioning government system that will be able to pull the country from the deep recession it now faces. what's happened so far has been so when engine cuts on the

masses and we really haven't managed to make the world move to state impact upon the whole nation itself greece is still fundamentally in a huge problematic situation it does not remotely have a functioning government system that fiscally is going to manage to organize itself in any which way possible to manage to get through the continuing swen cuts that need to take place out of course then we're looking at the whole issue of the demonstrators are the governments listening well the truth is the governments can't afford to listen because what we're seeing within the european union even if the euro has survived miraculously for twelve months government has run out of money the european union's western socialist model of spending huge amounts of money borrowing even greater amounts of money and hoping to pay everything manyara or indeed thirty years from manion or simply does not work only three years ago island

was bankrupt from receiving a bailout to rescue its failed economy despite this the very same country was just taking the six month presence a year for european council and its artie's or smith reports the celtic tiger has some hard graft ahead. it's all changed by the e.u. presidency as all islands takes over the six months rotating challenge on the first of january not the ovi is choice islands one of the guys in peg's the countries that have been least stable economies in europe and sure enough arlen's the first country to take hold in the presidency of the twenty seven nation bloc while being propped up by e.u. and i.m.f. money so for the next six months the e.u. and systemic problems will be presided over by one of its weakest and most problematic members so what specific challenges does little face in europe over the

six months of its presidency first the european economy is slowing flaws and the crisis is nowhere near over secondly it must preside over leaders actually agreeing to an e.u. budget for the years two thousand and fourteen to two thousand and twenty something they've spectacularly failed to do so far and thirdly there is a problem coming from right here in london increasing british opposition to brussels and the threat to european cohesion that poses the irish government expects the e.u. presidency to coast in excess of seventy million euros money the country can ill afford and what will it be spent on twenty four million catering accommodation and transport for example and another twenty million extra governments. spend half the year in two thousand and twelve under house arrest and the other half holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london but he still managed to british

a t.v. series talking to the key news makers by the mainstream media our correspondent in london sarah ferguson has been following his ups and downs through the year. a lot of you say wiki leaks and julian started more in a year old t. the most media organizations have done in decades we've really had a front seat view of everything that's been going on we've had him at the beginning of the year of fighting that extradition to sweden we saw his the pill rejected we then saw that dramatic twist in the trial when he went into the i could do it embassy seeking asylum we've been learning julian assange certainly the british media we see a lot of the colonel who quite viciously especially during the course of this year with movies. events happening surrounding chilean assault a lot of people who would put that down plain and simply to jealousy. now up next it is breaking the set with host abby martin that's after a short break. which

is soften enough and knows that to ride a horse you've got to catch it first. for him it's a daily routine that you're soft as a forest breeder on the island of horn at the heart of. his life on an isolated farm is about blue sky green grass and his horses what they're sometimes it gets lonely here but the horses have become part of me now i've fallen off so many times sometimes they'd bite as well it's part of my everyday life.

i look for mst been home to it nick brats locally just laugh for centuries most still live off the land cattle and fish. if you might call it is often called the pearl of siberia and horn is said to be the pearl of by call it's all end of think forests. and vast stops. virtually undiscovered by tourists until some twenty years ago i was cornish quickly becoming a magnet for nature lovers and few real sick others you're quite some way from civilization here accommodation on the island is very basic so you can forget about a t.v. or even run in water for most people a tent is the on the eruption but for those who come here. it's exactly what they're looking for. and sure need to buy coal can be as unique a trip of

a lifetime and the locals say once you've seen it they'll be coming back again and again. because. you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food. you know how. many. pounds i know that i've seen seems really really messed up. in the all the resort or sleep all of the. worst year for the little. white house to give it to a radio guy in fort lauderdale minutes from a click off that i want to watch close to good you've never seen anything like this on telly.